Sic’ Em Science Day proves successful despite tornado warning

Waco families gathered to explore the world of science early afternoon Saturday at the Mayborn Museum Complex for Sic’ Em Science Day, an event put on by different groups within the education and programs team in cooperation with the museum.

During the event, a tornado warning was called out in the area and families were moved to lower levels of the building. Parents comforted their worried kids as they told them to sit tight. After about 45 minutes, the event was continued, and all the stress was forgotten.

The event, though slightly disturbed by mother nature, proved to be a success, according to the numbers of families there. Kids left happy, having hopefully learned a little something about science and technology. Unfortunately, the magic show, which was planned for 3 p.m., was canceled due to the weather.

The event took up most of the museum and consisted of several experiments, crafts and exhibits. Upstairs, rooms were sorted into box shaped rooms, including some with animals like bearded dragons and snakes, while others provided little experiments to test scientfific subjects like electricity. There was even a light and sound room — a jumbling mess of noise and colors that the kids loved.

“There’s a disconnect. When kids are this big, they love science,” Darrin Bellert, an associate professor of chemistry, said. “When they get to high school, they lose that. They lose all of that great feeling and everything else about science, and so it’s great to try foster that when we possibly can. The idea is to try to bridge that disconnect, keep kids interested in science, meet people in the stem fields, and this is a great way of doing it.

Anna McKay, the museum engagement manager, explained that Sic’ em Science Day was a great way for all these different groups of Baylor’s education system to participate in one big event, including the Chemistry department and museum studies classes.

“We’ve had a lot going on,” McKay said of the event. “We have two different groups from a museum studies undergrad doing some different activities, and we also have a museum studies graduate class that are doing some activities as well on the floor and our design den which is our making and tinkering space. The 8-year-olds and up are doing an electronics take apart, so they’re just getting to take apart all sorts of things like keyboards, computers, all that.”

McKay added that National Fossil Day is coming up, and Mayborn will have an event for that, too.